College Essay Writing 101

So you need to write a college essay, or several, and you don't know how to begin.

Here are some quick tips to get you writing. The most important thing to remember is that to write an excellent college essay, you don't need to write an entire essay in the first draft. Nor do you need to write a long, detailed outline, unless that works for you.

The best way to start a college essay is to just open a blank document and start writing. Write anything that comes to your mind about what is unique about you, what you like, what you see yourself doing in the future, or anything that might be useful for a future college admissions essay submission.

Start like this:

1. Open a blank document.

2. Put one word at the top that describes you.

3. Start writing anecdotes for that word about yourself.

4. Free flow write and do not edit yourself. 

5. When you are finished or burned out on that idea, start a new idea in the same way.

Here's an example opening:

When I was in high school I liked to volunteer sometimes. To begin my ideation, I will put the word "volunteer" at the top of my blank document. Here is what my brainstorming paragraph will look like:

"When I was a kid my family used to go to volunteer mission trips to Ensenada where we would do all kinds of odd jobs around an orphanage there. In high school I volunteered for the student conflict management team. If there was a fight on campus or two people had trouble getting along, we would mediate a discussion between them so they could come to a mutual understanding. This benefitted the student body and helped create a sense of community at my high school. I also volunteered to pick up trash along the American River for the American River Parkway Foundation. The goal was to keep the rivers around Fair Oaks clean and free of trash so that the wildlife would thrive. I was on the school dance team and we would have fundraisers for the team, and I would volunteer to sit at the table on game days during my free period."

By freeflow writing with one word in mind, I have managed to come up with several essay ideas with the topic of volunteerism. The ideas I came up with could also be used for essays about what inspires me, what I like to do in my free time, how I might contribute to a college campus community, etc. Each idea in the paragraph above is the start of an essay!

Don't procrastinate. Just write one word for today and a freeflow paragraph and you are on your way to creating some great college admissions essays.